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The  Family,  the  State 
and    the    School 

By  REV.  P.  C.  YORKE,  D.  D. 


A  PAPER  READ  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING 
OF  THE  CATHOLIC  EDUCATIONAL  ASSOCIA- 
TION,  AT   Pin^SBURG,    PA.,   JUNE    24,    1912 


SAN  FRANCISCO: 

THE  TEXT  BOOK  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1912. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress 

In  the  year  1912 

By  P.  C.  YOEKE 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress 

Washington,  D.  C. 


C^l/  CyC-^   Ti^^^iizr 


The  Family^  the  State 
and    the    School 

By  REV.  P.  C.  YORKE,  D.  D. 


A  PAPER  READ  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING 
OF  THE  CATHOLIC  EDUCATIONAL  ASSOCIA- 
TION,   AT    PITTSBURG,    PA.,    JUNE    24,    1912 


SAN  FRANCISCO: 

THE  TEXT  BOOK  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1912. 


Imprimatur 

*  P.  G.  RIOEDAN,  D.  D. 

Aeps.  Sti.  Francisci 
In  festo  Nativ.  B.  V.  M.,  1912 


The  Family,  the  State 
and    the    School 

By  REV.  P.  C.  YORKE,  D.  D. 

A  PAPER  READ  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING 
OF  THE  CATHOLIC  EDUCATIONAL  ASSOCIA- 
TION,   AT    PITTSBURG,    PA.,    JUNE    24,    1912 

IT  is  With  great  reluctance  that  I  ap- 
proach the  consideration  of  this  sub- 
ject. In  the  first  place,  I  remember 
the  domestic  controversy  that  raged  some 
twenty  years  ago  over  its  theoretical  as- 
pect, and  I  should  be  very  sorry  if  any 
word  of  mine  might  lead  to  a  revival  of 
that  unhappy  dispute.  In  the  second 
place,  a  consideration  of  the  extrinsic  and 
intrinsic  principles  that  must  determine 
our  practical  attitude  towards  present  ten- 
dencies, involves  questions  that  are  very 
much  in  evidence  at  the  moment,  and  it 
might  appear  to  the  captious  that  our  dis- 
cussion of  them  in  this  gathering  is  not 
without   ulterior  motives.     In   the   third 

259953 


Facing  Conditions,  Not  Theories. 

place,  I  must  confess  that  I  am  not  suffi- 
ciently conversant  with  the  literature  of 
the  subject  to  offer  you  a  learned  paper, 
nor  have  I  the  opportunity  now  for  that 
research  which  the  importance  of  the  mat- 
ter and  the  dignity  of  this  assembly  de- 
mand. At  the  same  time  I  know  your 
kindness  will  make  allowance  for  my 
shortcomings,  because  I  am  writing,  as  it 
were,  under  obedience,  and  because  I  do 
not  intend  to  enter  on  the  thorny  road  of 
rights  and  duties.  We  are,  as  Cleveland 
said,  facing  conditions,  not  theories,  and 
my  object  is  to  give  you  a  plain  descrip- 
tion of  those  conditions,  to  discover  the 
causes  that  produce  them,  and  finally  to 
suggest  the  practical,  matter-of-fact  atti- 
tude we,  as  Catholics  and  Americans, 
should  take  toward  the  Family,  the  State 
and  the  School. 

I.     THE  CONDITIONS. 

That  our  present  conditions  in  the 
United  States  are  very  different  from 
what  they  were  twenty  years  ago,  is  evi- 

2 


The  Magnification  of  the  State. 

dent  to  the  most  superficial  observer.  In- 
deed, it  would  be  strange  if  they  were  not, 
for  human  conditions  are  always  chang- 
ing, not  in  America  alone,  but  the  world 
over.  The  very  name  we  bestow  on  our 
civil  society,  the  State,  is  a  witness  to  this 
truth.  Its  significance  therefore  lies  not 
in  the  fact  of  the  change,  but  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  change.  Whither  are  we  drift- 
ing? or  if  we  are  pursuing  a  set  course, 
by  what  stars  do  we  sail? 

I  think  you  will  all  agree  with  me  that 
the  general  trend  of  public  opinion  in 
this  country  today  is  towards  an  exalta- 
tion of  the  idea  of  civil  society,  an  enlarge- 
ment of  its  powers,  and  a  more  frequent 
exercise  of  its  activities — a  process  which, 
for  the  want  of  a  better  word,  I  will  call 
the  "magnification"  of  the  State.  By  the 
"magnification"  of  the  State  I  do  not 
mean  that  natural  political  growth  of  the 
central  power  at  the  expense  of  the  local 
units  which  began  at  the  first  confedera- 
tion and  was  made  secure  by  the  results 
of   the   Civil   War;    that   is.   I   am   not 


The  Normal  Trend  in  America. 

speaking  of  the  growth  of  the  National  or 
Federal  Government  as  against  States' 
Rights.  I  mean  rather  a  change  in  the 
idea  of  the  State  itself,  whether  it  be  rep- 
resented by  the  President  at  Washington 
or  by  the  humblest  trustee  of  a  village 
school. 

It  is  especially  significant  that  this 
^^magnification"  of  the  State  is  looked 
upon,  not  as  something  exceptional,  but  as 
something  natural  and  normal.  Just  as  we 
say,  ^^ Inter  arma  silent  leges/*  so  we 
know  that  there  are  abnormal  conditions 
in  which  the  State  may  undertake  enter- 
prises that  in  ordinary  circumstances  it 
will  leave  to  private  initiative.  In  a 
famine  or  a  flood,  in  a  fire  or  an  earth- 
quake, in  a  plague  or  a  panic,  the  State 
has  to  act,  and  to  act  quickly.  In  such 
cases  the  individual  withers  and  is  lost  in 
the  general  need.  Moreover,  in  States  that 
are  composed  of  superior  and  inferior 
races  or  are  made  up  of  various  classes  or 
strata  of  differing  degrees  of  prosperity 
and  culture,  usually  the  results  of  one  or 


Among  the  Freest  of  Peoples. 

more  military  conquests,  we  expect  to  find 
a  modern  government  in  its  just  desire  to 
benefit  all  classes  of  its  citizens,  adopting 
measures  that  savor  of  paternalism.  But 
here  in  America  we  are  dealing  with  a 
homogeneous  people  that  has  enjoyed  free- 
dom for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half.  We 
are  dealing  with  a  race  which  (neglecting 
the  colored  population)  has  had  during 
that  time  a  government  the  most  demo- 
cratic that  has  ever  existed.  We  are  deal- 
ing with  a  country  where  one  man  is  as 
good  as  another,  and  where  popular  edu- 
cation has  been  worshipped  as  the  palla- 
dium of  popular  liberty.  We  are  dealing 
with  a  Constitution  in  which  free  thought 
and  free  speech  have  been  maintained  as 
in  no  other  form  of  civil  society.  We  are 
dealing  with  citizens  whose  franchises  are 
of  the  broadest  description  and  who  sit  in 
their  curjile  chairs,  not  only  as  the  kings 
the  barbarian  saw  in  the  Roman  Senate, 
but  also  as  philosophers,  the  decision  of 
whose  wisdom  is  the  court  of  last  resort. 
Let  the  people  rule,  let  the  people  decide, 


Exemplified  in  Family  and  School. 

is  the  slogan  under  which  our  hosts  are 
marching  forth  to  war,  and  it  is  on  this 
people,  this  assembly  of  rulers  and  judges, 
in  a  time  of  peace  and  prosperity,  that  the 
^^magnification"  of  the  State  is  invoked  as 
the  only  cure  for  the  multitudinous  evils 
that  afllict  us. 

To  describe  adequately  the  process 
which  I  have  called  the  ^'magnification" 
of  the  State  would  require  a  survey  of  all 
the  departments  of  government  and  an  ex- 
amination of  all  the  lines  of  national  and 
local  development.  Such  a  survey  would 
exceed  the  limits  of  a  paper,  and  is  of 
course  not  to  be  thought  of.  I  will  there- 
fore take  one  specimen  of  the  process,  a 
specimen  which  I  think  will  be  of  general 
interest  to  you  as  citizens,  and  of  special 
interest  to  you  as  members  of  the  teaching 
profession.  I  mean  the  "magnification" 
of  the  State  in  reference  to  the  Family  and 
the  School. 

There  is  not  one  of  you,  I  am  sure, 
that  has  not  had  forced  upon  him  the 
actual   and   pressing   question   oiE   the   in- 


High  Cost  of  Living  and  High  Taxes. 

creased  cost  of  living.  No  words  of  mine 
could  add  to  the  discussions  in  the  public 
press  or  describe  the  feelings  of  those  who 
nowadays  contemplate  their  monthly  bills. 
So  harrowing  a  subject  is  best  left 
to  silence.  But  we  may  ask,  What  is 
the  cause  of  the  growing  dearness  of 
the  necessities  of  life?  No  doubt, 
there  are  many  causes.  Some  will  fix 
on  the  Tariff  and  some  on  the  Trusts. 
I  notice  very  few  call  attention  to  an  ele- 
ment that  is  certainly  as  important  as 
Tariff  or  Trusts,  namely,  the  rising  rate 
in  the  expenditure  of  the  public  funds. 

The  association  of  the  words  "publicans 
and  sinners,"  so  striking  in  the  Roman 
period  of  Sacred  History,  is  no  longer  in 
this  country  an  idea  "not  understanded  of 
the  people."  The  taxgatherer  is  abroad 
in  the  land  with  a  vengeance.  During  the 
past  ten  years,  in  a  district  where  there 
has  been  neither  boom  nor  catastrophe,  my 
parish  taxes  have  increased  a  hundred  per 
cent.  What  is  the  reason?  The  reason  is 
that   the    city    is    spending   more    money. 


The  Consumer  Pays  the  Taxes. 

We  want  a  monumental  City  Hall,  and  we 
must  pay  for  it.  We  want  modern  fire 
houses,  and  we  must  pay  for  them.  We 
want  palatial  public  schools,  and  we  must 
pay  for  them.  The  old  Romans  built  their 
temples  and  their  palaces  and  their  thea- 
ters from  the  plunder  of  the  provinces; 
we  build  them  from  the  plunder  of  our- 
selves. 

As  is  known  to  everybody,  this  in- 
crease in  taxes  has  to  be  met  ultimately  by 
the  consumer.  When  the  landlord  has  to 
pay  more  on  his  property,  he  makes  the 
tenant  pay  more  on  the  rent.  When  the 
tenant  has  to  pay  more  on  the  rent,  hfl 
makes  the  purchaser  pay  more  on  the 
commodities  he  needs.  The  baker  in- 
creases the  cost  of  the  loaf  or  lessens  its 
size.  The  butcher  announces  that  meat 
has  gone  up,  and  in  the  raise  recoups  him- 
self for  his  tribute  to  the  landlord.  So, 
while  it  is  not  the  only  factor  in  the  in- 
creased cost  of  living,  still  the  (increase  of 
taxation  caused  by  the  lavish  expenditure 
of  public  money^is  one  which  the  student 

8 


High  Taxes  from  High  Expenses. 

of    economics    cannot    afford    to    neglect. 

Now,  if  the  swollen  rate  of  taxation 
were  caused  only  by  the  installation  of 
permanent  improvements,  there  would  be 
some  hope  of  abatement  as  the  bonds  are 
redeemed.  But,  unfortunately,  the  an- 
nual expenses  of  civic  administration  are 
also  rising.  This  is  especially  true  in 
Public  Education.  In  California  the  cost 
of  the  public  schools  has  climbed  from  a 
low  proportion  of  the  general  expenditure 
until  now  it  equals  that  of  all  the  other 
departments  put  together.  Of  every  hun- 
dred dollars  raised  by  this  State  to  pay 
its  way,  the  State  system  of  education  ab- 
sorbs fifty.  And  the  end  is  not  yet.  There 
is  now  before  the  people  a  Free  Text  Book 
proposition,  the  adoption  of  which  will 
materially  increase  our  burdens,  for  adopt- 
ed it  will  be  unless  all  the  signs  of  the 
times  are  at  fault. 

The  steady  rise  of  the  school  appropria- 
tion in  proportion  to  the  appropriation 
required  to  carry  out  the  other  functions 
of  the  State,  is  not  due  to  expenditure  for 


Caused  by  New  State  Activities. 

purely  school  purposes  or  for  the  better- 
ment of  teachers'  salaries.  If  such  were 
the  case,  there  would  not  be  so  much  room 
for  complaint,  because  there  would  be  a 
natural  limit  in  view.  But  the  increase  is 
caused  by  the  development  of  new  activi- 
ties undertaken  in  connection  with  the 
schools  proper,  and  to  this  development 
there  appears  to  be  no  horizon.  It  is  a 
form  of  the  "magnification"  of  the  State 
which  costs  money  and  multiplies  with  the 
fearsome  fecundity  of  a  microbe  in  a 
favorable  culture  medium. 

One  needs  not  to  be  so  very  old  to  re- 
member a  time  when  the  American  com- 
mon school  was  an  agency  for  the  diffusion 
of  the  elements  of  education.  It  taught 
the  youth  of  the  land  how  to  read,  write 
and  figure,  and  was  content  if  its  gradu- 
ates could  perform  those  operations  with 
accuracy  and  facility.  The  college  was 
frankly  for  such  as  sought  a  liberal  edu- 
cation in  order  to  pursue  what  are  known 
as  the  learned  professions.  Now,  how- 
ever, the  common  schools  are  so  crammed 

lO 


The  Old  School  and  the  New. 

with  subjects  that  the  mastery  of  the  ele- 
ments of  education  is  a  most  uncommon 
achievement  among  its  graduates.  Be- 
tween the  college  and  the  common  school 
the  high  school  has  arisen,  and  at  one  end 
of  its  development  it  proclaims  itself  the 
University  of  the  People,  and  at  the  other 
end  it  proposes  to  absorb  two  grades  of 
the  elementary  course  in  order  to  produce 
that  scholastic  mermaid  '^known  as  the 
intermediate  school.  In  revenge  the  com- 
mon school  is  reaching  back  to  ravage  the 
nursery;  and  the  kindergarten  dignifies 
with  the  name  of  scholastic  education  the 
processes  of  infantile  alimentation,  and  the 
sub-conscious  suggestion  of  somnolence 
produced  by  the  oscillatory  movement  of 
the  cradle  and  the  crooning  of  that  pre- 
historic and  catastrophical  epic,  "Rock-a- 
Bye,  Baby,  on  the  Tree  Top."  The  college 
is  submerged  in  the  university,  which  no 
longer  demands  of  its  alumni  the  disci- 
pline of  an  organic  course  of  instruction, 
but  has  become  an  immense  intellectual 
department  store  offering  information  on 

II 


Leading  Up  to  State  Socialism. 

every  subject  under  the  sun;  and  its  cus- 
tomers wander  from  counter  to  counter  in- 
specting and  sampling  the  wares  usually 
at  their  own  sweet  will.  Moreover,  the 
extension  of  the  domain  of  knowledge  or 
the  search  for  new  truth  tends  more  and 
more  to  absorb  university  energies,  so  that 
the  degree  formerly  the  hall  mark  of  a 
university  course  satisfactorily  absolved 
has  now  become  the  sign  of  matriculation 
into  the  post-graduate  departments,  as  if 
men  were  to  be  always  learning  and  never 
arriving  at  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. 

Years  ago,  when  the  advocates  of  paren- 
tal rights  in  the  matter  of  education  were 
arguing  against  the  incipient  encroach- 
ments of  the  State,  they  prophesied  that  the 
processes  then  begun  would  infallibly  lead 
to  Communism  or  Socialism.  They  were 
laughed  at  for  their  pains.  Such  conse- 
quences might  be  feared  in  the  effete 
Latin  nations  of  Europe,  but  the  sturdy 
individualism  of  America  could  not  be 
corrupted  by  free  public  schools.  We 
have  passed   far  beyond   the   forebodings 

12 


Of    rM£ 


School  Socialism  in  Practice. 


of  those  timid  Cassandras.  Not  only  have 
we  free  schools,  but  free  books,  free  lunch, 
free  clothes  and  free  transportation.  Not 
universally  as  yet,  but  more  and  more 
widely  adopted  every  day.  In  the  schools 
the  State  inoculates  the  children  against 
smallpox,  insures  them  against  toothache, 
examines  them  for  eye  strain,  searches 
their  inward  parts  for  adenoids,  and  if 
their  little  interiors  escape  the  State  sur- 
geon's knife  it  is  because  the  unfortunate 
infants  are  void  and  empty.  Then  there 
are  trained  nurses  to  inspect  their  food,  to 
supervise  their  digestion,  to  feel  their  pulse, 
to  test  their  sputum,  to  label  their  bugs. 
Nay,  the  commonest  of  domestic  opera- 
tions cannot  escape  the  catholic  care  of  the 
School  Board,  and  there  is  a  maid  to  comb 
the  children's  hair,  to  wash  their  face,  to 
clean  their  teeth,  to  pare  their  nails,  to 
button  their  frocks  and  to  tie  their  shoes. 
Formerly  play  was  considered  the  very 
antithesis  of  school.  Its  natural  sponta- 
neity was  contrasted  with  the  artificial  rou- 
tine of  the  class  room.    The  old  saw  had 


13 


Not  Even  Play  Hours  Exempt. 

it:  '^AU  work  and  no  play  makes  Jack 
a  dull  boy."  But  now  tKe  long  hand  of 
the  all-compelling  pedagogue  has  reached 
out  into  the  playground,  not  only  during 
school  time,  but  in  the  once  inviolable 
hours  after  school.  No  longer  may  the 
youth  of  the  nation  gambol  on  the  green, 
or  play  ball  in  the  vacant  lot,  or  even  do 
chores  for  mother.  They  are  herded  into 
so-called  playgrounds,  tagged,  measured, 
weighed  and  card-catalogued.  All  the 
natural  spontaneity  of  play  has  disappear- 
ed. The  children  are  automata,  the  cor- 
pora vilia  for  the  experiments  of  scien- 
tists, whose  researches  have  never  been 
equalled  since  Gulliver  in  his  travels  hap- 
pened upon  the  philosophers  of  Laputa. 
With  rings  on  their  fingers  and  bells  on 
their  toes,  pedometers  on  their  ankles  and 
resistance  coils  on  their  elbows,  they  are 
put  through  the  predigested  motions  that 
make  the  formal  exercises  of  the  gymna- 
sium a  torture  to  every  normal  and 
healthy  child. 

But  that  is  not  all.    You  remember  the 


Nor  Any  Sort  or  Condition  of  Men. 

Old  Man  of  the  Sea  in  the  veracious 
history  of  Sinbad  the  Sailor.  The  school, 
having  once  got  on  the  neck  of  the  com- 
munity, bids  fair  to  stay  there  forever. 
Having  completely  subdued  the  children, 
and  having  taught  them  that  their  time 
and  their  powers  no  longer  belong  to 
themselves  or  their  parents,  but  to  the 
State,  as  represented  by  the  school  authori- 
ties, the  latest  development  aims  to  hold 
them  in  tutelage  all  the  days  of  their  life. 
Lest  you  may  think  I  am  trying  to  raise  a 
cheap  laugh  by  indulging  in  burlesque,  I 
hasten  to  quote  my  authority  for  what 
follows.  In  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  of 
June  I,  191 2,  you  will  find  an  article  en- 
titled, "The  Discovery  of  the  School- 
house,"  by  Frederick  C.  Howe,  in  which 
is  given  a  sympathetic  synopsis  of  a  con- 
ference held  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  on 
the  new  uses  of  the  public  school.  That 
conference  was  no  mere  convention  of 
cranks,  but  was  attended  by  such  men  as 
Governor  Woodrow  Wilson  of  New  Jer- 
sey, Governor  Stubbs  of  Kansas,  Governor 

15 


All  at  the  Charge  of  the  People. 

McGovern  of  Wisconsin,  Senators  Clapp 
and  Pomerene,  and  university  presidents, 
editors,  educators,  architects,  from  all 
over  the  country.  The  general  thesis  to 
which  all  subscribed  was  that  it  is  a  mis- 
take to  restrict  the  use  of  the  school  house 
to  the  seven  hours  of  the  school  day.  It 
belongs  to  the  people  and  should  be  at 
the  disposal  of  the  people.  It  is  down- 
right waste  not  to  use  it  after  school  hours 
for  all  kinds  of  social  and  civic  activities. 
The  American  public  school  house  should 
be  the  expression  of  popular  fervor,  like 
the  cathedrals  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
center  of  popular  life,  like  the  Forum  of 
ancient  Rome. 

The  new  uses  to  which  the  schools  are 
to  be  put  are  many  and  various,  but  they 
all  have  the  common  characteristic  that 
they  call  for  an  immense  expenditure  of 
public  money.  In  Rochester  certain  peo- 
ple, in  order  to  avoid  the  waste  of  closed 
school  houses,  induced  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation to  appropriate  $5,000  to  keep  them 
open  fourteen  hours  in  the  day,  instead  of 

16 


Ruled  by  Beneficent  Pedagogues. 

seven,  as  if  a  man  owning  a  $30  auto- 
mobile duster  should  invest  $3,000  in  a 
car  lest  the  $30  be  unused.  Chicago  has 
spent  $11,000,000  in  the  cause,  and  New 
York  distributes  annually  $228,000  for 
school  lectures  and  neighborhood  gather- 
ings alone. 

In  future  the  school  house  is  to  harbor 
a  town  meeting  in  perpetual  session.  Thi- 
ther shall  come  the  Mayor,  the  Council- 
men,  and  even  the  majestic  Congressmen, 
to  give  an  account  of  their  stewardship. 
The  dull  scholastic  atmosphere  shall  be 
brightened  by  discussions  on  taxes,  roads 
and  candidates,  and  the  stagnant  air  of 
authority  made  to  vibrate  to  miniature 
cyclones  of  referendums  and  recalls. 
There,  too,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
beneficent  Pedagogue,  the  citizenry  is  to 
be  organized  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
wicked  boss  and  the  destruction  of  the 
political  machine.  One  of  the  most  pa- 
thetic sights  of  the  conference  was  the 
look  of  pained  astonishment  that  over- 
spread the  assembly  as  the  beneficent  Peda- 

17 


Forum,  Village  Green,  and  Church. 

gogue  reported  how  the  wicked  boss  afore- 
said had  smitten  him  hip  and  thigh  and 
distributed  his  spoils. 

The  school  is  to  be  not  only  an  everlast- 
ing town  meeting,  but  it  is  to  be  a  never- 
fading  village  green  with  an  eternal  May- 
pole. "Rings,  bars,  and  tumbling  mats" 
oust  the  stiff  and  antiquated  desks.  "Box- 
ing and  wrestling  matches"  replace  the 
caligraphic  exercises  at  the  blackboard. 
"Basket  ball  games"  teach  an  accuracy  un- 
known to  the  multiplication  table.  In 
part  return  for  its  quarter  of  a  million 
expenditure,  a  school  official  of  New  York 
"visited  one  of  the  schools  last  fall  and 
found  300  young  people  dancing  under 
wholesome  surroundings." 

Moreover,  the  school-center  is  to  be  the 
church  of  the  people  —  not  a  futile  dog- 
matic church,  but  a  modern  church  that 
brings  results.  Libraries,  lectures,  mov- 
ing pictures,  minstrel  shows,  music,  ice 
cream  and  spelling  bees  —  these  arc 
the  seven  sacraments  of  the  new  dis- 
pensation, and  they  work  ex  opere  oper- 

18 


Social  Center  and  Reformatory. 

ato.  "Mr.  Clarence  A.  Perry,  en- 
gaged by  the  Russell  Sage  foundation  of 
New  York  to  make  a  study  of  school  cen- 
ters, says,  after  an  investigation  of  condi- 
tions in  large  cities:  ^The  girl  without  a 
social  center  is  the  mother  of  the  woman 
on  the  street.' "  Nay,  more,  the  social 
center  is  the  "one  thing  necessary"  for,  he 
continues:  "If  the  city  has  to  choose  be- 
tween the  schools  and  the  play  centers,  it 
could,  I  believe,  give  up  the  schools  more 
safely  than  it  could  go  without  the  play 
centers."  Before  their  benign  influence 
the  "gangs  of  toughs"  that  infest  our  cities 
will  disappear.  Instances  are  given  of 
how  they  have  been  metamorphosed  into 
"debating  clubs,"  to  the  great  admiration 
of  the  merchants  of  the  place.  Surely, 
admiration  in  its  original  sense  is  the  only 
feeling  that  could  be  aroused  by  the  pale- 
livered  doctrine  that  the  superabounding 
vitality  of  red-blooded  youth  could  find 
sufficient  outlet  for  its  energies  in  "speak- 
ing pieces." 

The  new  school  house  is  to  be  the  seat 

19 


A  Life  Long  Popular  University, 

of  a  popular  university.  There  is  to  be 
the  natural  habitat  of  the  Free  Lecturer. 
The  winter  before  last  700  of  the  species 
were  turned  loose  on  the  inoffensive  peo- 
ple of  New  York  City  alone.  If  the  lec- 
tures were  anything  like  those  evolved  in 
this  vicinity,  I  have  a  deep  and  abiding 
sympathy  for  the  5,400  audiences  that  at- 
tended them.  My  experience  of  such  lec- 
tures is  that,  considered  as  a  means  of  edu- 
cation, their  value  is  nil,  and  that  consid- 
ered as  a  form  of  entertainment  their  cost 
is  exorbitant. 

And  this  university  is  never  to  let  go  its 
grip  of  the  people  "until  death  doth  them 
part."  One  of  the  apostles  of  the  new  dis- 
covery spoke  of  a  "life-long  university," 
and  from  the  experience  of  Wisconsin  was 
drawn  the  hope  that  "Some  day  we  shall 
be  able  to  go  to  college  all  our  lives — and 
without  leaving  our  own  ward  or  county." 
Only  a  sublimated  university  professor 
could  conceive  the  summum  bonum  of 
human  existence  as  going  to  school  for- 
ever. 

20 


The  School  House  of  the  Future. 

It  would  tire  your  patience  if  I  were  to 
describe  in  detail  all  the  proposals  for  us- 
ing tlie  school  house.  It  is  to  be  an  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station,  a  Co-opera- 
tive Store,  a  Town  Hall,  a  People's  Club, 
a  Theater,  a  Branch  Library,  a  Public 
Employment  Bureau,  a  Health  Office,  a 
Dental  Dispensary,  a  Headquarters  for 
School  Nurses,  a  Pure  Milk  Depot,  an 
Art  Gallery,  a  Voting  Booth,  a  Concert 
Hall,  a  Billiard  Room  and  a  Restaurant. 
I  will  sum  up  this  description  of  our  pres- 
ent conditions  by  quoting  the  closing  para- 
graphs of  the  article  referred  to  above.  It 
is  true  that  the  whole  program  has  no- 
where been  realized,  but  a  real  program 
It  is,  and  if  enthusiasm  and  sincerity  can 
bring  it  into  effect,  its  promoters  are  rich 
in  both  qualities.  Here  is  Mr.  Howe's 
conclusion:  ^The  school  house  is  waiting 
for  democracy  —  for  the  democracy  that 
is  fast  finding  its  voice  all  over  America. 
It  will  be  the  new  town  hall — the  town 
hall  that  bred  the  spirit  of  the  Revolu- 
tion prior  to  the  Battle  of  Leyineton.     In 

21 


How  the  Conditions  Are  Produced. 

the  school  house  we  shall  breed  the  orators, 
statesmen  and  politicians  of  the  future. 
From  them  will  issue  the  musician  and 
the  artist.  Out  of  it  a  new  drama  will 
spring. 

^The  school  house  will  make  culture, 
education  and  companionship  life-long 
things.  In  the  revivified  old  red  school 
house  democracy  has  possibilities  that  no 
one  has  fully  dreamed  of.  It  will  be 
democracy's  Acropolis  I  About  it  the  life 
of  the  community  will  center  as  it  cen- 
tered about  the  Forum  in  ancient  Rome." 

11.     THE  CAUSES. 

The  foregoing  rapid  survey  of  actual 
conditions  in  American  school  life  shows 
how  great  a  hold  the  civic  authority  has 
obtained  on  the  processes  of  education — 
how  far  the  ^^magnification"  of  the  State 
has  advanced  in  this  direction  alone.  The 
description  of  the  proposed  uses  of  the 
school  house  measures  the  extent  to  which 
the  new  thought  hopes  to  go.  In  this 
latter  department  there  is  much  said  about 

22 


They  Call  for  a  New  Bureaucracy. 

the  people  using  the  school  house  for  this, 
that  and  the  other  purpose;  there  is  noth- 
ing said  about  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  to  use  it.  After  all,  no  matter  how 
democratic  the  organization  of  a  com- 
munity may  be,  the  people  must  act 
through  officials.  At  the  Madison  confer- 
ence no  one  seems  to  have  thought  of  the 
number  of  hands  necessary  to  do  the  many- 
sided  work  centered  in  the  new  school 
house.  The  janitor  would  be  compelled  to 
abdicate  his  "ancient  solitary  reign,"  and 
every  school  center  would  be  a  miniature 
State  capitol  and  Washington  combined. 
A  horde  of  officials  as  industrious  as  the 
aphides  on  a  rose  bush  would  draw  susten- 
ance from  the  treasury  of  every  school  dis- 
trict. A  band  of  experts  would  dominate 
the  daily  life  of  the  people  down  to  its 
minutest  details.  It  would  be  a  standing 
army  before  which  the  battalions  of  Ger- 
many would  fade  into  insignificance;  it 
would  be  a  bureaucracy  before  which  the 
multitudinous  officials  of  France  would 
hide  their  diminished  heads. 

23 


Difficulty  of  Finding  Causes. 


Naturally  the  question  arises  at  this 
point,  How  does  it  come  to  pass  that  peo- 
ple so  individualistic  as  the  Americans  and 
so  attached  to  personal  liberty,  permit  such 
interference  with  their  elementary  rights, 
and  what  is  it  that  moves  men  of  educa- 
tion, and  experience  in  public  business,  to 
desire  to  push  to  such  extremes  the  "mag- 
nification" of  the  State? 

As  in  every  other  great  movement  aflfect- 
ing  the  national  life,  it  is  impossible  to  fix 
on  one  cause  as  an  adequate  explanation 
of  all  the  phenomena.  The  forces  behind  the 
tendencies  are  for  the  most  part  obscure, 
or  rather,  we  are  too  close  to  them  to  ap- 
preciate their  nature.  There  are,  how- 
ever, certain  facts,  some  of  universal  oc- 
currence, and  some  peculiar  to  American 
conditions,  which  may  throw  light  on  the 
receptivity  of  the  public  to  the  new  aposto- 
late;  while  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
the  apostolate  itself  is  motived  by  a  false 
philosophy  concerning  the  nature  of  the 
State  and  a  false  theory  concerning  the  de- 
velopment of  the  human  race. 


24 


Getting  Something  for  Nothing. 

The  first  fact  to  which  I  would  call 
your  attention  as  explanatory  of  the  readi- 
ness of  the  people  to  barter  their  rights 
and  liberties,  is  the  desire  to  get  something 
for  nothing.  This  appetite  is  universal, 
and  manifests  itself  in  such  familiar  forms 
as  the  bargain  sale,  the  trading  stamp,  the 
coupon  and  the  premium.  Now,  you  will 
find  that  it  is  practically  impossible  to 
convince  the  ordinary  citizen,  who  is  taxed 
only  indirectly,  that  he  pays,  and  pays 
dearly,  for  the  education  his  children  re- 
ceive in  the  public  schools.  He  is  firmly 
convinced  that  he  is  getting  something  for 
nothing  —  that  the  State  is  giving  his  little 
ones  a  gratuitous  gift  out  of  its  own  re- 
sources. Hence,  when  it  is  proposed  to 
extend  the  scope  of  the  State's  generosity 
and  to  present  the  pupils  with  free  text 
books,  he  grows  enthusiastic  over  the  pros- 
pect of  sharing  more  largely  in  the  public 
beneficence,  never  thinking  that  the  State 
has  nothing  except  what  it  gets  from  the 
people,  and  that  he  is  "paying  the  piper" 


25 


Getting  a  Return  for  Taxes. 


without  having  the  privilege  of  "calling 
the  tune." 

When  the  ordinary  citizen  is  a  property 
owner  and  a  direct  taxpayer,  he  argues  in 
some  such  fashion  as  this:  I  am  paying 
taxes  for  the  support  of  the  public  schools ; 
therefore  it  is  economy  for  me  to  use  them. 
The  more  use  I  make  of  them,  the  larger 
return  I  receive  from  my  contribution  to 
the  State.  In  fact,  I  get  back  more  than  I 
pay,  especially  if  I  can  avail  myself  of 
free  text  books,  free  lunch  and  free  trans- 
portation. So  far  I  am  getting  something 
for  nothing.  But  he  does  not  realize  the 
"wear  and  tear"  on  his  taxes  caused  by  the 
numerous  middlemen  who  handle  them 
from  the  time  they  leave  his  hands  until 
they  are  brought  back  by  his  children,  and 
particularly  he  does  not  realize  that  the 
time  of  his  children's  schooling  is  only  a 
short  period  of  his  taxpaying  existence — 
children  come  and  children  go,  but  taxes 
go  on  forever. 

Another  fact  of  universal  experience  is 
human   selfishness.     It   is   not   a   pleasant 

26 


Fact  of  Human  Selfishness. 


trait  to  consider,  but  we  must  acknowledge 
the  existence  among  men  of  the  tendency 
to  shift  their  burdens  to  other  people's 
shoulders.  Those  who  have  to  do  with  in- 
stitutions for  the  care  of  dependent  chil- 
dren, the  sick  or  the  aged,  know  how  ready 
certain  persons  are  to  turn  their  charges 
over  to  charity,  public  or  private.  A 
man,  for  instance,  is  left  a  widower 
with  a  number  of  children.  He  is  in  good 
health,  is  earning  good  wages,  and  prom- 
ises the  institution  to  pay  for  the  rearing 
of  his  offspring.  For  a  while  he  keeps  his 
promise,  but  how  often  it  happens  that  the 
payments  become  irregular  and  finally 
cease.  He  has  married  again,  and  moved 
away,  and  left  his  children  to  be  cared 
for  by  the  Church  or  State.  Those  of  you 
who  have  had  experience  in  orphan  asy- 
lums know  what  measures  you  are  com- 
pelled to  adopt  in  order  to  protect  the 
rights  of  children  whose  parents  abandon 
them  to  the  institution  in  their  helpless  in- 
fancy, but  who  wish  to  reclaim  them  the 
minute   they   are   able   to   earn    a   dollar. 

27 


Our  Special  Predisposition. 


These,  it  is  true,  are  extreme  cases,  but 
they  bear  witness  to  a  widespread  tendency 
to  shift  burdens  to  other  shoulders.  All  I 
have  seen  of  settlement  work  leads  me  to 
believe  that,  while  beneficial  in  many  re- 
spects, its  great  drawback  lies  in  develop- 
ing in  the  children  the  belief  that  they  are 
entitled  to  something  for  nothing,  and  in 
emphasizing  in  the  parents  the  tendency 
to  allow  other  people  do  for  their  young 
what  they  themselves  are  bound  to  do. 
Hence,  if  the  public  school  undertakes  the 
ordinary  domestic  operations  I  have  de- 
scribed above — operations  which  naturally 
belong  to  the  home  and  the  parent — espe- 
cially if  it  offers  free  nursing  and  free 
medical  attendance,  things  which  cost 
money,  we  will  find  people  ready  enough 
to  acquiesce,  though  deep  down  in  their 
hearts  they  know  they  are  sacrificing  their 
self-respect  and  are  pauperizing  them- 
selves and  their  children. 

There  is  in  America  a  special  cause  pre- 
disposing us  to  State  interference.  It  is  the 
correlative  of  the  Puritan  passion  for  med- 

28 


Heirs  of  the  Meddlesome  Puritans. 

dling  in  other  peoples'  business.  When 
the  revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century  sepa- 
rated the  northern  nations  from  the  Church 
the  organization  of  the  new  religions  took 
two  different  paths.  Protestantism  is  in 
its  essence  a  protest  against  the  separate 
natures  of  Church  and  State.  It  denies  the 
existence  of  two  distinct  societies,  each  in- 
dependent and  supreme  in  its  own  sphere, 
and  having  between  them  charge  of  the 
destinies  of  mankind.  In  England  and 
Germany  the  State  absorbed  the  Church: 
in  Geneva  and  Scotland  the  Church  ab- 
sorbed the  State.  New  England  was  peo- 
pled by  the  spiritual  children  of  Geneva 
and  Scotland.  The  Puritans  believed  that 
the  State  was  merely  a  department  of  the 
Church  and  should  be  ruled  despotically 
in  the  interests  of  the  Church.  Hence 
came,  in  the  halcyon  days  of  Massachu- 
setts, the  banishment  of  heretics,  the  clip- 
ping of  Quakers'  ears,  the  persecution  of 
witches  and  the  minute  and  vexatious  regu- 
lations known  as  the  Blue  Laws.  Hence 
come,  even  in  our  own  time,  though  the 

29 


Patrons  of  Patent  Medicines. 


State  has  long  since  emancipated  itself,  the 
continuous  ingerence  of  the  preachers  in 
civic  affairs,  the  steady  pressure  of  the 
churches  on  the  public  schools,  and  espe- 
cially the  numerous  political  movements 
for  regulating,  antagonizing,  suppressing 
every  thing  in  the  heavens  above  and  the 
earth  beneath  and  the  waters  under  the 
earth.  Never  was  a  nation  so  afflicted  as 
this  with  crusades,  armies,  phalanxes, 
leagues,  bands,  movements,  ribbons  white, 
blue  and  red,  pledges  total,  partial,  and 
for  a  while,  reforms,  abolitions,  insurgen- 
cies, uplifts,  fads,  fancies  and  fanaticisms — 
all  the  spawn  of  the  Puritan  policy — • 

"To  compound   for  sins   that  they're  in- 
clined to 
By  damning  those  they  have  no  mind  to." 

America  is  the  native  home  of  the 
patent  medicine,  and  our  patent  medicine 
is  designed,  not  only  for  the  body,  but  also 
for  the  mind.  Just  as  we  believe  in  a 
cure-all  for  the  ills  of  the  flesh,  so  we  be- 
lieve in  a  cure-all  for  the  ills  of  the  soul. 

30 


Education  the  Great  Cure-Ail. 

When  anything  goes  wrong  with  the  body 
politic,  our  first  thought  is :  Let  us  make 
a  law;  and  we  have  enough  of  fool  pro- 
visions on  our  statute  books  for  legislating 
people  into  morality  to  furnish  material  for 
the  collective  hallucinations  of  a  dozen  in- 
sane asylums. 

During  the  nineteenth  century  the  great 
sovereign,  universal  and  efficacious  Amer- 
ican patent  medicine  was  education.  Edu- 
cation would  not  only  deliver  us  from 
Popery,  brass  money  and  wooden  shoes, 
but  the  three  R's  were  proclaimed  as  an 
infallible  specific  for  the  elimination  of 
crime  and  the  production  of  good  citizen- 
ship. Indeed,  if  we  have  the  courage  to 
sample  the  arguments  for  our  public 
school  system  published  sixty  years  ago, 
we  shall  find  that  they  all  taste  of  the 
soothing  syrups  whose  alluring  advertise- 
ments delighted  our  grandmothers. 

Moreover,  as,  when  one  bottle  of  the 
patent  medicine  does  not  cure,  you  arc 
strongly  recommended  to  try  a  second,  and 
it  is  impressed  upon  you  that  to  obtain  re- 

31 


Motive  Power  of  Petty  Graft. 

suits  the  treatment  must  be  kept  up,  so, 
when  the  splendid  results  that  were  to 
come  from  the  public  schools  did  not  ma- 
terialize, the  cry  went  forth  for  more  pub- 
lic schools.  Hence  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  in  the  welter  of  public  opinion  on 
matters  scholastic  there  are  only  two  things 
on  which  all  agree,  namely,  that  the  schools 
have  not  produced  the  results  predicted, 
and  therefore  it  is  necessary  to  spend  more 
money  upon  them,  to  enlarge  their  scope, 
to  multiply  their  activities,  for  this  kind 
of  a  kingdom  of  heaven  also  suffereth  vio- 
lence, and  we  must  bankrupt  ourselves,  if 
necessary,  in  order  to  bear  it  away. 

Such  are  a  few  of  what  I  may  call  the 
passive  causes  that  favor  the  ^^magnifica- 
tion"  of  the  State  in  education.  Let  us  now 
consider  some  of  the  active  causes — the 
motives  that  impel  men  to  become  apostles 
of  the  new  movement.  Here  I  will  briefly 
allude  to  what  may  be  called  the  motive 
power  of  graft.  For  instance,  a  church  or 
a  sectarian  society  establishjes  a  kindergar- 
ten, a  wood  yard  or  a  social  settlement 

32 


The  Two  Great  Impelling  Causes. 

Everything  goes  on  swimmingly  until  the 
novelty  wears  off  and  the  subscriptions  be- 
gin to  fail.  The  next  step  is  to  proclaim 
the  work  non-sectarian  and  to  appeal  to  a 
larger  circle  of  subscribers.  For  a  while 
this  measure  brings  some  relief,  but  again 
the  difficulty  of  making  ends  meet  raises 
its  ugly  head.  Then — nobody  can  tell  how 
it  is  done — but  the  first  thing  you  know  is 
that  the  kindergarten  has  been  incorporated 
into  the  public  school  system,  the  wood 
yard  has  become  a  municipal  enterprise, 
and  the  social  settlement  is  subsidized  by 
the  city  department  of  charities,  and,  most 
beautiful  arrangement  of  all!  the  original 
staff  remain  to  carry  on  the  work,  now,  of 
course  at  the  expense  of  the  public  funds. 
Proceedings  such  as  this,  however,  are 
overshadowed  by  the  two  great  impelling 
causes  of  the  "magnification"  of  the  State, 
which  appeal  not  only  to  the  practical  poli- 
tician, but  to  the  educated  man,  the  enthu- 
siast, the  humanitarian,  for  it  is  from  the 
ranks  of  such  as  these  are  drawn  its  most 
effective  protagonists. 

33 


Protestantism  Intellectually  Dead. 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  clear  the  ground 
by  calling  to  your  mind  the  complete  dis- 
appearance of  Protestantism  in  America 
as  an  intellectual  or  moral  motive  power. 
The  organizations,  indeed,  exist,  but  the 
soul  is  dead  within  them.  The  antagonism 
to  the  Mother  Church  is  still  there,  but 
it  energizes  only  in  silly  paroxysms  of 
bigotry — beating  its  head  against  a  stone 
wall.  The  old  dogmas,  false  as  they 
were,  or  rather  half  truths  as  they  were, 
had  a  certain  force,  but  you  might  search 
Protestantism  with  lamps  and  find  no 
trace  of  those  old  dogmas  now.  Modern- 
ism has  eaten  out  the  marrow  of  the  min- 
istry, agnosticism  is  the  very  breath  on 
which  the  laity  lives.  Hence  the  Protest- 
ant churches  are  seeking  on  every  side  for 
some  living  thing  on  which  they  may 
fasten  themselves,  and  the  pulpits  are 
busy  proclaiming  the  beauties  of  social 
service  and  civic  worth,  the  value  of 
the  institutional  church  and  the  necessity 
of  business  methods  in  religion,  and  such 
like  patent  substitutes  for  the  one  thing 

34 


Theory  of  the  Social  Contract. 

the  Apostle  chose  to  know — Jesus  Christ 
and  Him  Crucified. 

Hence  it  is  that  when  public  men  face 
the  problems  of  the  day  they  have  no  in- 
spiration in  the  religion  of  their  fathers, 
and  it  is  an  article  of  faith  with  them 
that  the  Catholic  Church  has  nothing,  at 
least  in  the  province  of  intellect,  that  an 
enlightened  man  need  consider.  Conse- 
quently, they  are  thrown  back  on  the 
premises  of  mere  materialism,  and  their 
philosophy  deals  with  a  humanity  whose 
destinies  are  bounded  by  the  cradle  and 
the  grave. 

Among  the  tenets  of  modern  philosophy 
perhaps  the  most  universal  is  that  concern- 
ing the. nature  of  the  State.  Nothing  is 
more  common  nowadays  than  to  hear  that 
the  people  are  the  State,  and  that  the 
people  must  rule.  No  doubt,  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  these  statements  are  true, 
but  there  is  a  sense  also  in  which  they  are 
. false,  and  unfortunately  it  is  in  the  false 
sense  they  obtain  currency  amongst  us. 
The  theory  of  the  social  contract  is  the 

35 


Consequent  Omnipotence  of  State. 

theory  on  which  all  our  modern  Ameri- 
can policies  are  founded.  The  individuals 
of  a  country  create  the  State  by  agreeing 
to  give  certain  powers  to  the  government. 
The  only  limit  to  the  power  of  the  State 
is  the  will  of  the  people.  No  matter  what 
the  voters  authorize  the  State  to  do,  that 
the  State  has  a  right  to  do. 

Hence  it  follows  that  there  is  nothing 
in  human  life,  nothing  in  human  society, 
that  is  not  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
State.  Therefore  every  human  organiza- 
tion derives  not  only  its  powers,  but  its 
very  existence  from  the  State.  Therefore 
every  individual  is  completely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  State.  If  the  family  exists,  it  is 
because  the  State  has  made  it  and  en- 
dowed it  with  certain  rights  and  privi- 
leges, which  rights  and  privileges  the 
State  can  alter  or  take  away.  If  the 
Church  exists,  it  is  because  the  State  in- 
corporates or  tolerates  it.  It  has  no  powers 
of  its  own,  it  can  enjoy  only  those  granted 
by  law,  assumed  by  custom,  and  allowed 
by  indifference.    If  the  individual  has  any 

36 


The  Superstition  of  Evolution. 

rights,  It  is  because  the  omnipotent  State, 
that  is  to  say,  the  will  of  the  people,  has 
not  taken  them  from  him;  if  he  has  any 
privileges,  it  is  because  the  State,  that  is 
to  say,  the  majority,  ha$  in  its  beneficence 
enfranchised  him. 

This  is  the  first  principle  of  modern 
philosophy,  and  the  second  is  the  popular 
conception  of  the  theory  of  evolution.  In 
these  two  tenets  we  have  sufficient  explana- 
tion of  the  new  apostolate  of  the  "magnifi- 
cation" of  the  State,  for  on  them  hangeth 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets.  I  do  not 
intend  here  to  enter  on  a  scientific  exami- 
nation of  the  doctrines  of  evolution  or 
of  the  various  schools  into  which  its  sup- 
porters are  divided.  Tt  is  sufficient  to 
know  evolution  as  the  masses  understand 
it,  and  this  sort  of  evolution  is  in  reality  a 
religion,  or  rather  a  superstition.  Of  the 
millions  of  men  who  give  their  adhesion 
to  the  tenets  of  evolution  there  are  very 
few  who  are  competent  to  render  a  reason 
for  the  faith  that  is  in  them,  and  these 
few  usually  adopt  an   attitude  of   philo- 

37 


The  Two  Dogmas  of  Darwinism. 

sophic  doubt.  But  this  does  not  prevent 
the  so-called  popular  philosophers  from 
presenting  evolution,  not  as  a  working 
hypothesis  in  the  study  of  nature,  but  as 
a  demonstrated  scientific  fact — the  great 
achievement  of  modern  research.  So  from 
newspaper  and  magazine,  from  text  book 
and  plptform,  goes  up  the  cry  with  more 
than  Mahometan  insistency,  "Great  is  evo- 
lution, and  Darwin  is  its  prophet." 

The  popular  religion  of  evolution  may 
be  summed  up  in  two  dogmas:  First,  we 
are  in  a  condition  of  constant  develop- 
ment, and,  secondl)'',  development  is  caused 
and  directed  by  external  agencies,  that 
is  to  say,  by  the  environment  or  the  condi- 
tions in  which  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being.  Hence  it  follows  that 
if  we  are  to  develop  along  favorable  lines, 
we  must  exist  in  a  favorable  environment. 
But  as  we  are  now  intelligent  beings  we 
must  no  longer  leave  our  environment  to 
the  haphazard  methods  of  nature;  we 
must,  on  the  contrary,  bend  our  intelli- 
gence to  the  task  of  so  regulating  the  con- 

38 


Well  Suited  for  the  Puritan  Temper. 

ditions  surrounding  the  race  that  human- 
ity will  be  raised  to  higher  and  higher 
planes. 

You  see  at  once  how  this  theory  of  the 
molding  power  of  external  circumstances 
dovetails  into  the  Puritan  system  of  Blue 
Laws  and  inquisitorial  regulations,  and 
you  can  understand  why  the  religion  of 
evolution  has  made  so  complete  a  con- 
quest of  the  non-Catholic  American  mind. 
The  Christian  teaching  that  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  within  us  is  utterly  re- 
jected. With  the  calm  pity  of  superior 
culture  they  correct  the  Christ  who  bids  us 
to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and 
its  justice,  and  all  material  needs  shall  be 
satisfied,  and  they  proclaim  that  we  must 
first  be  anxious  as  to  what  we  shall  eat, 
and  what  we  shall  drink,  and  wherewithal 
we  shall  be  clothed,  and  then  they  say 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  shall  be  added 
to  us. 

Hence  in  the  domain  of  education  the 
philosophy  of  evolution  rejects  the  idea 
that  teaching  is  the  awakening  and  guid- 

39 


Education  an  External  Element. 

ing  of  a  vital  process  in  the  mind  of  the 
pupil  by  which  his  internal  and  native  en- 
ergies are  exercised  and  developed  until 
he  is  able  to  employ  them  as  a  free  agent 
on  a  universe  over  which  he  has  been 
given  dominion.  Rather  the  mind  of 
child  is  a  plastic  mass,  to  be  molded 
by  the  forces  that  surround  it,  and 
to  take  on  the  image  and  likeness  of  its 
environment.  Wherefore  the  necessity  of 
one  great  supervising  intelligence  to  deal 
with  the  circumstances  in  which  the  na- 
tion's youth  is  spent.  No  longer  must 
their  shaping  be  left  to  accident,  to  nature 
or  to  the  family,  but  the  authority  of  the 
State  must  be  exercised  and  the  finances 
of  the  State  must  be  spent,  that  the  child 
of  the  State  shall  be  fashioned  as  the 
highest  intelligence  of  the  State  directs. 

Surely  it  is  a  magnificent  vision  that 
has  dawned  on  the  proud  eyes  of  the  phil- 
osophers of  our  day,  as  magnificent  as  the 
vision  that  shone  before  the  Son  of  the 
Morning  what  time  his  ambitious  feet 
ascended    the    sides    of    the    North    and 

40 


Dream  and  Fact,  Titanic  and  Wright. 

aspired  to  the  throne  of  the  Most  High. 
They  sit  in  serene  majesty  in  their  seats 
of  learning,  and  on  their  knees  lie  the  for- 
tunes of  men  as  on  the  knees  of  the  gods. 
On  their  shoulders  is  the  key  of  knowledge, 
in  their  hands  the  rod  of  power,  on  their 
lips  the  creative  word.  Before  the  bright- 
ness of  their  rising  the  other-world  picture 
of  the  pale  and  thorn-crowned  Galilean 
fades  away  and  Man  has  come  into  his 
own  at  last.  No  longer  shall  he  lift  lame 
hands  to  a  heaven  that  hears  not  and  to  a 
God  that  answers  not.  Heaven  is  here 
upon  earth  and  humanity  is  god — a  god 
not  only  conscious  of  his  own  needs,  but 
omnipotent  in  supplying  them.  No  more 
is  he  to  be  named  less  than  the  angels — he 
is  the  Demiurge  who  lords  it  over  the 
powers  of  nature  and  bends  them  to  his 
will.  And  lo!  as  a  butterfly  on  a  sum- 
mer's day  brushes  against  the  cheek  of  a 
child,  the  frozen  mass  glides  by  the  steel 
sides  of  man's  mightiest  achievement,  and 
in  a  moment  the  gorgeous  palace  with  its 
human  freight  is 

41 


What  the  Future  May  Contain. 

"Shot,  precipitated 
Adown  Titanic  glooms  of  chasmed  fears." 

A  microscopic  germ  begotten  in  the  cor- 
ruption of  earth  drags  through  the  un- 
timely gates  of  death  him  who  taught 
men  to  spurn  the  earth,  to  walk  on  the 
wings  of  the  wind  and  to  sail  with  the 
eagle's  steadfast  eye  into  the  splendors  of 
the  sun.  Vanitas  vanitatum  et  omnia  vani- 
tas. 

III.     THE  OUTLOOK. 

Having  considered  American  condi- 
tions in  as  far  as  they  refer  to  the  School, 
the  Family  and  the  State,  and  having  tried 
to  find  out  what  are  the  causes  that  have 
produced  those  conditions,  it  is  now  in 
order  to  ask  ourselves  what  should  be  our 
practical  attitude  as  Catholics  and  Ameri- 
cans towards  this  state  of  things. 

While  I  do  not  wish  to  pose  as  a  pessi- 
mist or  to  minimize  in  any  way  our  rights 
and  our  duties  as  citizens  or  to  disparage 
the  talent  for  public  affairs  and  the  devo- 

42 


Our  Ruling  Thought  Secularist. 

tion  to  principle  that  undoubtedly  exist 
amongst  us,  still  I  am  convinced  that  we 
can  do  nothing  by  direct  action  to  arrest 
the  "magnification"  of  the  State,  the  abase- 
ment of  the  family  and  the  elimination 
of  the  individual  in  the  province  of  edu- 
cation. My  reasons  for  this  belief  I  will 
give  briefly.  In  the  first  place,  the  ruling 
thought  of  this  country  is  now  secularist. 
The  public  schools  have  done  their  work 
well.  They  have  atrophied  the  religious 
sense  in  the  vast  majority  of  their  gradu- 
ates. The  universities  are  substituting  the 
superstition  of  evolution  for  the  cast-off 
clouts  of  Christianity.  Thus  all  over  the 
country  today  we  have  in  full  blast  innu- 
merable factories,  not  indeed  for  the  mak- 
ing of  infidels,  but  for  the  production  of 
devotees  to  the  cult  of  humanity.  In  their 
opinion,  revealed  religion  is  a  delusion 
and  a  snare,  and,  having  acuteness  enough 
to  recognize  that  Catholicism  is  the  only 
logical  form  of  revealed  religion  extant, 
they  look  upon  it  as  the  most  indefensible. 
Therefore,    any    direct    proposal    coming 

43 


Deep-Seated  Suspicion  of  Catholics. 

from  us  would  not  even  be  examined. 
The  mere  fact  that  it  emanates  from  Cath- 
olics ensures  its  immediate  and  unanimous 
rejection. 

In  the  second  place,  the  great  body  of 
American  non-Catholics  have  it  in  their 
bones  that  we  want  to  destroy  the  public 
schools.  As  long  as  we  pay  our  taxes 
and  say  nothirlg,  the  feeling  is  quiescent, 
but  let  us  make  the  most  innocent  pro- 
posal about  the  schools,  which,  after  all, 
are  our  schools  as  much  as  theirs,  and 
immediately  the  red  flag  is  thrown  to  the 
wind,  the  big  drum  is  beaten,  and  the 
country  is  stirred  to  guard  its  liberties 
against  the  Pope.  There  is  absolutely 
nothing  we  can  do  to  remove  this  preju- 
dice. We  may  admit  the  practical  neces- 
sity of  public  schools  such  as  we  have  in 
the  States,  we  may  pay  for  their  upkeep, 
we  may  serve  on  School  Boards,  we  may 
teach  in  their  halls,  we  may  send  our 
children  to  their  classes,  but  there  is  one 
thing  we  cannot  do,  and  that  is  give  our 
approval  to  the  theory  that  mere  secular 

44 


Because  We  Stand  for  Jesus  Christ. 

education  can  take  the  place  of  the  grace 
of  God  and  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
That  flag  we  nail  to  the  mast.  As  long 
as  we  keep  it  flying  we  must  be  objects 
of  suspicion  to  those  who  make  secularism 
their  idol.  They  have  lifted  up  their  im- 
age of  silver  and  gold,  and  they  com- 
mand all,  under  pain  of  high  treason,  to 
fall  down  and  adore  it.  But  we — much 
as  we  dislike  to  stand  apart  from  our 
fellow  citizens — ^we  must  worship  toward 
Jerusalem.  We  know  there  is  but  one 
way  for  man  to  be  born  again,  and  that 
is  of  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  We 
know  there  is  but  one  way  for  man  to 
attain  the  full  possibilities  of  human  life, 
and  that  is  by  denying  himself  and  taking 
up  his  cross,  and  following  in  the  narrow 
way  that  is  marked  by  tears  and  blood. 
We  know  there  is  but  one  way  for  man  to 
reach  the  destiny  for  which  he  was  cre- 
ated, and  that  is  by  persevering  to  the 
end  in  faith  and  hope  and  charity.  In 
the  face  of  this  knowledge  and  of  these 
tremendous  mysteries,   how  puny  are  the 

45 


False  Principles  Working  Out. 

devices  of  human  wisdom,  how  contempt- 
ible the  threat  of  human  anger,  how  high 
the  commission  laid  upon  every  one  of 
us,  "Wc  must  obey  God  rather  than  man." 
In  the  third  place,  even  in  the  rare 
cases  when  our  arguments  are  considered 
and  their  force  is  felt,  the  result  is  not 
to  draw  the  upholders  of  secular  educa- 
tion to  our  position,  but  to  force  them 
further  along  their  own  lines.  For  in- 
stance, one  permanent  result  of  nearly  a 
century's  argumentation  on  the  part  of 
Catholics  is  the  establishment  of  the  truth 
that  the  training  of  the  intellect  does  not 
involve  the  training  of  the  will.  Mere 
knowledge  does  not  make  character.  The 
most  ardent  supporters  of  secular  educa- 
tion now  admit  this  as  a  first  principle; 
but  it  does  not  bring  them  a  whit  nearer 
to  the  Catholic  contention  that  the  only 
sure  and  efficacious  way  for  training  the 
will  is  through  religion.  On  the  contrary, 
their  dislike  for  religion  is  only  inten- 
sified, and  they  would  banish  it  from 
home   life   and   from  public   life   as   they 

46 


Antichrist  the  Ape  of  Christ. 


have  banished  it  from  school  life.  The 
original  position  of  the  secularists  in 
America,  as  elsewhere,  was  that  religion 
is  a  detriment  in  education.  In  the  early 
days  they  carefully  masked  that  position, 
because  religion  was  in  possession.  They 
gracefully  set  religion  in  a  niche  apart^ 
and  insinuated  that  knowledge  was  not 
only  power,  but  morality.  Now  that  logic 
and  experience  have  shown  the  folly  of 
their  principle,  their  remedy  is  not  to 
bring  back  religion,  but  to  expel  it  from 
the  balance  of  the  citizen's  life  and  sub- 
stitute therefor  external  influences  under 
State  control.  In  fact,  as  Anti-Christ  is 
the  ape  of  Christ,  they  parallel  the  Chris- 
tian teaching  that  an  unlettered  man  of 
good  morals  is  a  better  citizen  than  a 
learned  man  of  bad  morals,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  report  of  the  investigator  of 
the  Sage  Foundation,  who  said  that  the 
city  could  better  afford  to  give  up  the 
schools  than  the  social  centers. 

At  this  point,  in  order  to  guard  against 
misunderstanding,  let  me  say  a  word  about 

47 


Catholics  and  Social  Action. 


our  attitude  toward  free  schools,  free  text 
books,  free  lunches,  playgrounds,  social 
centers  and  the  like.  As  far  as  I  know, 
there  is  nothing  in  Catholic  teaching  or  in 
Catholic  practice  antagonistic  to  those 
devices  considered  in  themselves.  In- 
deed, I  do  not  think  I  am  wrong  in 
saying  that  the  ideal  Catholic  school  is 
a  free  school.  Such,  at  least,  is  my  read- 
ing of  Church  legislation,  not  only  in 
modern  times,  but  in  the  dim  ages  when 
Christian  schools  were  first  organized.  It 
is  true  that  in  many  places  it  is  undesir- 
able to  realize  that  ideal  under  our  cir- 
cumstances, and  that  in  other  places  it  is 
impossible  —  nevertheless,  the  ideal  is 
there.  I  know  of  many  schools  —  in  Ire- 
land, for  instance  —  where  the  Brothers 
and  Sisters  not  only  gave  their  pupils  a 
free  breakfast,  but  also  free  clothes.  As 
to  playgrounds,  gymnasiums,  social  cen- 
ters and  the  like,  I  don't  suppose  there  is 
any  priest  who  at  some  time  in  his  career 
has  not  tried  to  help  and  interest  the  young 
people  in  his  charge  by  some  such  attrac- 

48 


Real  Remedies,  Not  Makeshifts. 

tions,  and  often  with  considerable  success. 
Far  be  it  from  us  to  object  to  any  meas- 
ure that  would  alleviate  the  burden  of  the 
poor  and  brighten  their  lives.  We  recog- 
nize that  if  in  a  great  city  the  vacant  lot 
has  disappeared,  we  must  institute  the 
municipal  playground  to  keep  the  chil- 
dren off  the  streets.  We  know  too  well 
the  manifold  temptations  that  encompass 
the  young  not  to  be  glad  to  see  centers 
multiplied  where  they  may  find  decent 
amusement  in  honest  surroundings.  What 
we  object  to  is,  in  the  first  place,  the 
attempt  to  make  the  conditions  of  a  con- 
gested city  the  rule  and  law  for  the 
whole  nation  and  the  exaltation  of  the 
means  to  meet  the  consequences  of  con- 
gestion as  an  end  in  itself  to  be  sought 
for,  regardless  of  consequences.  In  the 
second  place,  we  object  to  the  adoption  of 
palliatives  when  the  source  of  the  evil 
continues  active.  What  is  the  use  of  a 
porous  plaster  on  a  broken  leg?  How 
can  a  playground  abate  the  tenement  nui- 
sance?    The   real   remedy  is  to   regulate 

49 


Property  Has  Duties  as  Well  as  Rights. 

or,  if  necessary,  destroy  the  greedy  land- 
lordism that  houses  human  beings  in  rab- 
bit hutches.  It  often  comes  to  me  when 
I  hear  our  distinguished  Catholic  pub- 
licists thundering  against  Socialism  that 
they  would  be  doing  far  better  work  for 
our  Church  and  our  people  if  they  thun- 
dered against  the  evils  that  have  produced 
Socialism.  After  all,  the  people  in  our 
care  are  they  who  have  most  to  gain 
spiritually  and  materially  from  a  better- 
ment of  economic  conditions.  1  will  con- 
fess it  gets  on  my  nerves  as  I  see  Cath- 
olics swell  up  with  complacency  when 
they  are  patronizingly  told  that  the 
Church  is  the  great  bulwark  of  property 
by  some  millionaire  against  whom  the  de- 
frauded wages  of  his  workmen  are  crying 
to  heaven  for  vengeance.  It  is  true  we 
defend  the  right  of  private  property;  but 
we  also  proclaim  the  duties  of  private 
property,  and  I  say  with  a  full  sense  of 
responsibility  and  a  knowledge  of  what 
the  people  are  thinking  that  the  times  de- 
mand that  we  put  the  emphasis  of  our 

50 


The  Undermining  of  the  Family. 

teaching  not  so  much  on  the  absolute 
rights  of  property  as  on  its  fiduciary  char- 
acter, a  character  that  entails  duties  to- 
wards the  community  not  the  less  obliga- 
tory because  they  are  rooted  in  the  virtue 
of  charity  instead  of  in  the  virtue  of  jus- 
tice. 

In  the  third  place,  our  objection  to 
those  devices  is  founded  in  the  use  made 
of  them  to  destroy  the  independence  of 
the  individual  and  the  authority  of  the 
family  and  to  exalt  unduly  the  powers  of 
the  State.  In  the  course  of  this  paper  I 
have  given  sufficient  examples  of  this  ten- 
dency to  absolve  me  from  the  obligation 
of  enlarging  on  the  subject  now.  I  will 
therefore  hasten  to  the  conclusion  by  ex- 
plaining what  I  mean  by  indirect  action 
in  meeting  the  "magnification"  of  the 
State,  especially  in  the  province  of  educa- 
tion. 

Inasmuch  as  wc  cannot  expect  to  influ- 
ence those  who  are  without,  we  must  en- 
deavor to  confirm  those  who  are  within. 
Our  mission  now  does  not  lead  us   into 

51 


Let  Us  Hearten  Our  Own  People. 

the  way  of  the  Gentiles  or  the  cities  of  the 
Samaritans,  but  to  the  sheep  that  perish  of 
the  House  of  Israel.  If  the  Catholic  com- 
munity is  the  salt  of  the  earth,  what  will 
happen  if  the  salt  lose  its  savor?  While 
the  Church  as  Church  is  indefectible,  any 
local  church  may  fade  and  die.  Is  the 
spirit  of  the  American  Church  such  that 
we  need  have  no  fear?  How  stands  it 
with  the  laity  who  have  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  the  battle?  Are  they  clad  in  the 
whole  armor  of  God?  Are  they  girt  with 
truth  and  shod  with  the  Gospel,  and 
shielded  with  faith,  and  helmeted  with  sal- 
vation, and  armed  with  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit  which  is  the  word  of  God? 

That  is  the  question  we  must  put  to  our- 
selves, and  if  there  be  the  slightest  hesi- 
tation in  the  reply  there  is  the  weak  spot 
we  must  at  once  repair.  It  is  not  enough 
in  these  days  that  Catholics — especially 
Catholics  who  are  in  public  life — should 
know  only  the  truths  necessary  to  their 
personal  salvation.  On  them  is  the  solici- 
tude of  Church  and  State,   and  if  they 

52 


Let  Us  Have  Men  of  Light  and  Leading* 

would  do  their  duty  they  must  know  the 
Catholic  attitude  toward  the  great  funda- 
mental problems  of  society  that  are  now 
occupying  the  popular  mind.  We  have 
a  philosophy  which  is  the  outcome  of  the 
noblest  efforts  of  human  reason,  enlight- 
ened by  divine  revelation  and  controlled 
by  the  experience  of  all  the  ages.  To 
know  that  philosophy  and  to  apply  its 
principles  to  the  questions  of  the  day  is 
the  by  no  means  easy  task  for  which  our 
educated  Catholics  should  be  fitted.  Then, 
indeed,  will  they  be  men  of  light  and 
leading.  Then,  indeed,  will  their  conclu- 
sions stand  the  test  of  time,  of  facts  and 
of  argument.  Then,  indeed,  will  they  be 
not  only  the  champions  of  the  Church, 
but  also  the  benefactors  af  the  State,  for 
righteousness,  and  righteousness  alone,  ex- 
alteth  a  nation. 

And  as  the  main  movement  we  have  to 
meet  is  the  undue  extension  of  the  powers 
of  the  State,  so  it  is  necessary  for  us  to 
have  exact  and  clear-cut  ideas  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  State.    This  is  a  wide  subject 

53 


Correct  Teaching  About  the  State* 

which  I  cannot  touch  now;  but  it  is  fully 
elaborated  in  the  immortal  encyclicals  of 
Leo  XIII  and  in  the  numerous  text  books 
of  Catholic  philosophy.  In  view,  how- 
ever, of  our  special  circumstances,  there 
is  one  point  we  cannot  emphasize  too 
strongly  or  too  often,  and  that  is  that  the 
State  is  not  an  artificial  creation  of  man's 
good  pleasure.  The  State  exists  indepen- 
dently of  the  will  of  man,  and  its  essence 
and  its  properties  are  determined  by  na- 
ture. It  is  therefore  a  natural  entity,  and 
though,  like  most  natural  entities,  it  is  im- 
proved by  art,  there  is  a  limit  to  the  appli- 
cation of  art  beyond  which  there  is  decay 
and  death.  The  State,  too,  is  not  omnip- 
otent; its  powers  are  restricted,  and  no 
amount  of  legislation,  direct  or  indirect, 
can  give  the  State  authority  beyond  its 
sphere. 

Then  the  family  is  not  a  product  of 
man's  devising.  It  also  is  a  natural  society 
and  derives  its  rights,  not  from  the  State, 
but  from  nature.  It  is  true  it  is  subordi- 
nate to  the  State,  but,  as  the  State  did  not 

54 


A  True  Idea  of  the  Nature  of  the  Church. 

make  it,  the  State  cannot  destroy  it.  It  is 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  if  any  man 
lay  profane  hands  upon  it  his  generation 
is  cut  off  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Neither  is  God's  Church  an  artificial 
creation  of  human  wisdom,  nor  yet  is  it  a 
natural  society.  It  is  a  supernatural  or- 
ganization founded  by  Christ  and  set  in 
this  world,  not  as  subordinate  to  the  State 
or  drawing  its  power  from  the  State,  but 
as  supreme  and  independent  in  its  own 
sphere.  It  is  indeed  ready  to  co-operate 
with  the  State  in  all  that  pertains  to 
human  welfare.  It  is  most  scrupulous  of 
the  rights  of  the  State  and  most  generous 
in  its  concessions  in  mixed  matters  as  long 
as  principle  is  not  touched.  But  when  it 
comes  to  its  divine  authority  and  its  es- 
sential attributes,  then  it  is  ready  to  suffer 
all  things,  even  to  the  effusion  of  blood, 
rather  than  betray  the  trust  committed  to 
it  by  Christ. 

Here  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  us  to  indoctrinate  the  minds 
of  the  rising  generation  with  the  history 

55 


A  Remembrance  of  What  We  Suffered. 

of  the  Church's  long  struggle  for  liberty, 
the  achievements  of  the  confessors  and 
the  glorious  testimony  of  the  martyrs. 
Americans  have  grown  so  used  to  free- 
dom that  they  have  ceased  to  appreciate  it. 
The  generation  that  came  to  this  country 
from  over  seas  knew  what  persecution 
meant.  Few  of  their  children  that  have 
been  born  here  know  what  it  is  to  suffer 
for  the  faith. 

Hence  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  implant 
deep  in  their  minds  the  truth  that  Christ 
is  a  sign  to  be  spoken  against  and  that  His 
Church  is  a  walled  city  beleaguered  by 
the  Gates  of  Hell.  In  every  age  the  State 
has  striven  to  bring  her  into  bondage  and 
to  do  violence  to  the  conscience  of  her 
children.  We  hope  and  pray  that  our 
times  may  be  peaceful  and  that  we  may 
not  see  the  destruction  of  that  toleration 
that  has  been  our  country's  noblest  boast. 
But  we  know  not  the  day  or  the  hour. 
We  must  be  always  ready,  for  the  trial 
may  come  sooner  than  we  imagine.  It  is 
Impossible  for  the  pagan  State  not  to  per- 

56 


Emphasized  by  Daily  Practice. 

secute,  and  for  many  a  long  day  all  our 
national  forces  have  been  making  the  State 
pagan. 

To  impress  those  ideas  upon  our  people 
so  that  they  may  become,  as  it  were,  a 
second  nature  to  them,  we  must  have  re- 
course to  the  ancient  practice  of  the 
Church.  When  heresies  arise,  as  they  must 
arise,  the  ecclesiastical  authority  examines 
them,  discusses  them,  states  their  tenets 
in  precise  language,  condemns  them,  and 
publishes  the  form  of  sound  words  that 
enshrines  the  true  teaching.  In  this  pro- 
cess her  most  learned  men  arc  engaged, 
and  every  resource  of  sacred  and  even 
profane  science  is  invoked.  But  the 
Church  is  not  content  with  this  purely  in- 
tellectual procedure.  She  casts  about  for 
some  pious  practice,  some  sacramental, 
some  popular  devotion,  and  she  makes  it, 
as  it  were,  the  symbol  of  the  dogma  she 
has  defined.  For  instance,  the  doctrine  of 
our  redemption  by  the  death  of  Christ 
was  a  stumbling  block  to  the  Jews  and  a 
folly  to  the  Gentiles.     To  emphasize  her 

57 


And  by  Concrete  Examples  in  Life. 

teaching  the  Church  adopted  the  Cross  as 
the  exponent  of  that  mystery.  The  Chris- 
tians signed  it  on  their  bodies,  wore  it  on 
their  clothes,  impressed  it  on  their  domes- 
tic utensils,  placed  it  on  their  churches, 
imposed  it  on  the  very  crown  of  empire, 
and  after  two  thousand  years  we  still 
proudly  call  it  the  sign  of  salvation.  In 
the  same  way,  when  the  single  personality 
of  Christ  was  denied  by  the  Nestorians, 
the  Church  was  not  satisfied  with  learned 
definitions  of  the  dogma  in  council,  but, 
commanding  the  people  to  invoke  the 
Blessed  Virgin  as  the  Mother  of  God,  she 
brought  home  to  the  rudest  the  truth  that 
the  same  Person  who  is  the  Son  of  God 
IS  also  Son  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Now,  while  it  is  necessary  for  educated 
Catholics  to  know  the  great  principles 
and  conclusions  of  Catholic  philosophy, 
it  IS  also  necessary  to  put  those  princi- 
ples and  conclusions  into  some  concrete 
form  that  will  impress  upon  every  mind 
the  rights  of  the  family,  of  the  individ- 
ual and  of  the  Church  against  the  unregu- 

58 


The  Symbol  Being  the  Parochial  School. 

lated  ambition  of  the  State.  For  such  a 
purpose  I  know  of  nothing  more  fitting, 
nothing  more  available,  nothing  more  effi- 
cacious, than  the  Parochial  School. 

The  Parochial  School  stands  as  a  monu- 
ment to  the  conviction  of  Catholic  parents 
that  on  them  God  has  laid  the  primary 
obligation  of  educating  their  children.  It 
stands  as  the  fortress  of  the  family — a 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  nature  has  in- 
stituted the  domestic  society  as  the  proper 
means  for  raising  citizens,  not  only  for  the 
commonwealths  of  earth,  but  also  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  It  stands  as  the  bul- 
wark of  individual  rights  and  individual 
dignity,  teaching  its  pupils  that  they  are 
not  mere  cogs  in  the  wheels  of  State,  but 
that  they  are  free  and  responsible  beings 
placed  on  this  earth  to  work  out  their  sal- 
vation and  that  in  the  tremendous  day 
when  the  Lord  of  the  living  and  the  dead 
shall  enter  into  judgment  with  His  ser- 
vants, it  will  profit  little  if  they  have 
gained  the  whole  world  and  lost  their  own 
soul. 

59 


Even  in  an  Unpretentious  Form. 

The  Parochial  School  1  Humble  and 
unpretentious  though  it  may  be,  how  many- 
sacrifices  does  it  not  represent — sacrifices 
of  priest  and  people  and  the  daily  sacrifice 
of  the  noble  men  and  women  who,  under 
the  vows  of  religion,  spend  themselves  and 
are  spent  that  Holy  Mother  Church  may 
have  a  cavern  in  the  rock  and  a  cleft  in 
the  wall  to  raise  her  little  children  un- 
spotted from  the  world.  It  is  worthy  of 
our  admiration  and  of  our  support,  not 
only  for  the  work  it  does,  but  for  the  prin- 
ciples it  stands  for.  To  these  principles 
let  us  bind  ourselves  with  links  of  steel. 
Let  us  not  be  dazzled  by  the  pomp  and 
circumstance  of  secular  schools  that  lay 
tribute  on  public  funds  and  private  gener- 
osity— the  figure  of  this  world  passeth 
away.  How  gloriously  the  house  of  Ti- 
berius shone  from  the  Palatine,  how 
shameful  the  cross  on  which  slaves  were 
hanged!  The  palace  of  Tiberius  has  long 
been  a  shapeless  mound — a  quarry  for  the 
marbles  that  decorate  the  cross-crowned 


60 


Secularism  Is  the  Chief  Enemy. 

tomb  of  the  Fisherman.  Stat  crux  dum 
volvitur  or  bis. 

In  season  and  out  of  season  let  us 
hearten  ourselves  to  self-confidence  and 
loyalty  to  our  own  traditions.  I  know  the 
temptation  is  almost  irresistible  to  follow 
in  the  line  of  what  is  called  modern  im- 
provements. Let  us  remember  that  it  is 
a  temptation,  and  our  greatest  danger  is 
from  the  seepage  of  secularism.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  advocate  obscurantism  or  to 
turn  away  from  the  light,  but  let  us  be 
sure  that  it  is  the  light,  and  not  the  decep- 
tive glimmer  of  the  false  dawn.  Our 
children  have  a  right  to  the  best,  but 
what  is  newest  is  seldom  best.  Our  schools 
should  be  open  to  every  inspiration  of 
the  free  spirit,  but  then  they  must  be  as 
rock-built  towers  secure  on  adamantine 
foundations,  standing  four  square  to  every 
breeze  that  blows,  and  not  slight  and  rud- 
derless skiffs  that  every  wind  of  doctrine 
tosses  to  and  fro. 

This,  then,  in  conclusion,  I  conceive  to 
be  the  practical  attitude  demanded  from 

6i 


Let  Us  Stand  by  Our  Own  Traditions. 

American  Catholics  to  resist  the  unlawful 
encroachments  of  the  State,  namely,  to  con- 
tinue as  we  have  begun  in  the  strengthen- 
ing and  extending  of  our  own  system  of 
education  in  accordance  with  our  own  prin- 
ciples and  ideals.  Parish  School  and  Col- 
lege and  University — let  them  be  our  con- 
crete protest  against  secularism  and  State 
omnipotence.  Those  who  are  outside  may 
choose  to  feast  of  the  flesh  pots  in  the 
land  of  bondage,  but,  as  for  us  and  our 
house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord  through 
whom  kings  reign  and  princes  decree  jus- 
tice. Neither  let  us  lose  heart,  though  the 
task  is  hard  and  the  outlook  dark.  What 
if  the  Gentiles  rage  and  the  people  medi- 
tate vain  things?  After  all,  we  are  not  of 
ignoble  blood;  we  are  the  children  of  the 
martyrs,  and  the  God  of  our  fathers,  who 
led  them  with  a  mighty  hand  and  an  out- 
stretched arm,  will  not  deny  us  the  shadow 
of  His  wings.  The  sky  may  lower  and  the 
tempest  break  and  the  ocean  chafe  against 
its  accustomed  bounds,  but  God  shall  fold 
the  clouds  as  sheep  and  rebuke  the  winds, 

62 


And  Trust  to  God  for  the  Result. 

and  they  shall  be  still  and  the  sea  shall 
abate  its  swelling  waves.  Then  from  the 
midst  of  our  tribulation  we  shall  lift  up 
our  eyes  and  behold  the  cross  still  shining 
on  the  eternal  hills,  and  the  world  shall 
know  that  the  Lord  Omnipotent  reigneth. 


^ 


63 


'^U^'ipi{,f^l 


57 


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